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The Brisbane was launched in 2016 and is expected to be commissioned later this year, while the Sydney is scheduled to come into full service in late 2019.

The launch of the Sydney comes as shipbuilding jobs continue to be shed in Adelaide with the wind down of the destroyer program.

The program was also plagued with problems in its early years, with delays and cost blowouts but was recently removed from the defence department's projects-of-concern list.

The federal government has moved to bolster the defence shipbuilding sector in South Australia with a decision to produce some offshore patrol boats at Osborne, along with the navy's next fleet of frigates and future submarines, providing for decades of continuous work supporting thousands of jobs.